Mr Slater said Mr Howden had been shot in his right lower leg through the car door at close range of less than a metre.

He added: “The VW turned around in the road around 100 yards away.

“Mr Marples thought they were coming back to kill them.

“He spun his own car round and drove back the way he had come towards Halifax Road.

“In order to escape, he entered a coned-off section of the carriageway. The Volkswagen was close behind.”

A further two shots were fired but missed the Leon and its occupants as the chase continued in the direction of Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough stadium.

The Seat had to stop in traffic close to the junction with Leppings Lane and Penistone Road but made a bid to escape as the two gunmen got out of the VW and started firing. Mr Slater said: “Such was his desperation to escape, he rammed a car in order to drive through then mounted the pavement to cut off the corner and miss the traffic.”

Mr Slater said one witness saw the Seat drive past at high speed before the Golf pulled up seconds later and two men got out and began shooting before running back to their car, which did a 180 degree turn and went back up Halifax Road.

He said: “The driver of the Golf, like the gunmen, had his face partially obscured by some sort of covering. But the witness could see he was white.”

Mr Slater said a woman who also witnessed the attack described to police how she thought the armed men could have been terrorists.

The Seat escaped up Herries Road and Mr Howden was left at the Northern General Hospital, with the other three men in the car ‘going their separate ways fearing further trouble’.

The VW Golf was found burnt out in the Parson Cross area in the early hours of the following day.

After being arrested, Bennett initially did not comment to police in interviews.

After later being informed he had been identified as the driver, he said Mr Marples was either ‘lying or mistaken’.

Mr Slater said: “When asked where he was at the material time, he said he couldn’t remember but he would probably have been in bed at home.”

Mr Slater told the jury: “The fact that the defendant didn’t fire a weapon or was to seen to fire a weapon does not make a difference to his culpability.

“This was a determined and violent attempt to try and kill Jamie Howden.

“They all, driver included, must have shared a common intention to kill.”